Sausage linkers such as that shown in U.S. Pat. No. 3,115,668 use metering gears to control meat emulsion flow. The gears cause detrimental smearing of the meat.
Prior art casing linkers often make it difficult for the operator to tie off the lead and tail end of the meat casing, which cause some wastage of meat.
Further, existing linkers using linking chains cause the chains to stretch with use, and do not provide any accurate way of measuring this stretching so as to determine when the chain should be replaced.
Existing linking machines do not automatically weigh the product, and have no way to correct for weight variance.
Accordingly, features and objectives of the instant invention are as follows:
1. Mass Flow vs. Volumetric metering: By using a mass flow sensor to measure the flow of meat and thereby govern the meat pump the NL-14 has several advantages over a machine using metering gears. First, meat is less smeared using mass flow because it passes through a smooth stainless steel tube rather than a set of metering gears while being metered. This gives operators that ability to produce product with improved particle definition. Second, the mass flow meter is capable of measuring differences in meat density which can be analyzed by the PLC to provide important information about sudden difference in meat composition to the machine's operator.
2. Pressure Sensing: By controlling the flow of meat with an in line transducer (pressure sensor) rather than with metering gears the ability of the machine to produce large particle product is improved because the product is not smeared by metering gears. The transducer senses when meat is or is not required by sensing in line meat pressure and turns the meat pump on or off accordingly.
3. Twist Ramping: By adding additional twist to the lead and tail end of the casing the operator is given more time to tie off the casing before it is able to untwist. The additional twist is achieved by cycling the Twister through an RPM ramp in which the lead and tail end of the casting receive higher twist RPM then does the mid section.
4. Chain Stretch Test: By measuring the amount of stretch that has developed between butterflies on the linking chains the operator is able to gauge when the chains need to be replaced. The chain stretch is measured by comparing the known distance between a new set of chains of a given pitch with chains of the same pitch being tested. The distance between the butterflies is measured by a proximity sensor located near the chains as the chains rotate.
5. Auto weigh conveyor: By automatically measuring the weight of the product and automatically adjusting the machine to correct for any weight variance, the auto weigh feature enables the operator to test and adjust product weight without using a separate scale thereby saving time and increasing accuracy.
6. Follower Control: An ultra sound sensor mounted on the follower can automatically control various motors and clutches as it reaches different positions by traveling along with the follower rod.